The Independent View: AZ Open and Honest Elections Coalition

John Opdycke, President of Open Primaries, speaking at the launch.

Two committees were filed yesterday with the Arizona Secretary of State’s office to support two constitutional amendments to promote fairness and transparency in Arizona candidate elections.

The committees will be spearheaded by the Open and Honest Elections coalition which is driven by the fundamental premise that Arizona voters have the right to know who is contributing large amounts of money to influence our elections and the right to participate equally in all elections.

Open and Honest Disclosure would require groups who spend money to influence candidate elections to disclose the original source of any contribution in excess of $10,000. With over $15 million of undisclosed money spent in the 2014 election cycle to influence Arizona candidate races, campaign finance disclosure rules must be strengthened to restore integrity and transparency into Arizona’s election system.

Open and Honest Elections would create a level playing field for all candidates, regardless of party affiliation, where they would directly compete under the same rules. It would also allow all voters to participate in elections – removing the current unfair and often burdensome barriers for independent and unaffiliated candidates and voters. Independents are the largest registered group in the State of Arizona, yet they are treated to a completely different set of rules when it comes to running for office and voting in primary elections.

CLICK HERE to read the three page (PDF) Constitutional Admendment.

CLICK HERE to read the press release.

Richard Winger of Ballot Access News write:

On January 21, proponents of a top-two system for Arizona filed the text of their initiative. It is almost identical to the proposal submitted by the same people in 2012, which was defeated 662,366 to 1,340,286. However, it does say that if only one or two candidates file for the August primary (for an office that elects one person), the August primary will omit that office from the ballot, and the first vote for that office will be in November. It allows write-in votes in both August and November.

Earlier press reports had said the proponents would delete party labels from the primary and general election ballots, but the text does not eliminate party labels. The text says that the party label printed on the ballots must match the partisan registration of the candidate. The text does not make it clear whether that includes labels which are not the names of qualified parties. Anyone is free to register into any group on Arizona voter registration forms, on the blank line for “party.” If the proponents wished to allow any partisan label without restriction, it seems they would have set a limit on how long that label can be, as Washington state does.

The proposal makes no changes to the presidential primary or the presidential general election. The summary of the initiative implies that under current law, some voters are not able to vote in some primaries. Actually, existing law already guarantees that independents can vote in any partisan primary other than the presidential primary. Anyone who reads the summary would probably be led to believe that if the initiative passed, independents could vote in Arizona presidential primaries, but that would not be true.